Here Putin was saying that Germany energy strategy was nuts and he was right. How stupid some leader could be to make her country dependent on outside countries for something as strategic as energy?
I would never make the mistake of thinking him stupid, but the power structure underneath him pervades his visibility and makes him do irrational things. Seriously, watch the lecture I linked.
It's not exactly the same, but similar enough. This is because institutions warp incentives. Holding institutions accountable is the primary way you combat that.
Putin behavior makes lots of sense. In fact way more sense that European leaders for example.
For example: https://www.world-nuclear-news.org/Articles/Putin-German-nuc...
There is a video of that more than ten years ago.
Here Putin was saying that Germany energy strategy was nuts and he was right. How stupid some leader could be to make her country dependent on outside countries for something as strategic as energy?
Putin told everybody what he thought about Ukraine. http://en.kremlin.ru/events/president/news/66181
Even the "I will push the nuclear button because I have nothing to loose" is pretty rational. It worked wonders multiple times.
Just because he is our enemy now does not mean he is stupid. He is not.